


Lost (and found again)

by foxyroxi



Series: Rare pair hell [5]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Aaron and Neil are soulmates, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Boys In Love, Falling In Love, Jeremy and Andrew are soulmates, Kevin and Thea are soulmates, M/M, Soulmates, andrew in love, finding your soulmates, minor aaron/neil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:47:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25955437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foxyroxi/pseuds/foxyroxi
Summary: All it took was one look. One look and Andrew was hooked. Hooked to a picture perfect boy with straight white teeth, perfect wavy blonde hair and blue eyes. One look and Andrew knew he wanted to spend the rest of his miserable life with him. Andrew didn’t believe in soulmates, but this picture perfect boy might be his.
Relationships: Jeremy Knox/Andrew Minyard
Series: Rare pair hell [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1861276
Comments: 12
Kudos: 31





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The world needs more jeredrew, so here we go!
> 
> This could have gne several ways - Jeremy being a ghost. Jeremy being a pipe dream. It could have been terrible and heartbreaking, but they don't deserve that. So I ended up going with soulmates instead!
> 
> So have fun reading this!
> 
> Unbetaed.   
> English is not my first language.   
> Be kind to yourself and others!
> 
> You can talk to me on [twitter](https://mobile.twitter.com/foxyroxi_writes)!

All it took was one look. One look and Andrew was hooked. Hooked to a picture perfect boy with straight white teeth, perfect wavy blonde hair and blue eyes. One look and Andrew knew he wanted to spend the rest of his miserable life with him. Andrew didn’t believe in soulmates, but this picture perfect boy might be his. 

_ Soulmates.  _ It was a foreign concept to Andrew. He never thought he would live past eighteen. Then nineteen. Twenty. He wasn’t jealous when Aaron found his soulmate in one of the cheerleaders from the cheerleading squad. He wasn’t jealous when Kevin introduced him to Thea, a former Raven. 

They were soulmates. They all carried something from their soulmate. A memory that wasn’t really a memory. A constellation of freckles. A fleeting scent of sea water or hot chocolate. A collection of scars.

Andrew wasn’t jealous. He had never caught a whiff of something, shared a memory, nor did he have a constellation of something on his body. There was nothing and Andrew wasn’t jealous, because Andrew didn’t have a soulmate.

Andrew wasn’t even sure the picture perfect was real. He could have been someone he made up while he was high on drugs.  _ A pipe dream, _ his mind supplied. It wasn’t helpful at all.

Andrew stood solidly besides Kevin, watching sunshine boy mingle with the other participants of the banquet. Andrew couldn’t keep his eyes off of the other, scared that if he looked away, said boy would disappear. 

_ Look away.  _

_ I can’t.  _

_ You have to. _

The picture perfect looked back at him, his wide sunny smile faltering just a little. A look of surprise replaced his smile. It was almost like the boy could hear his thoughts from across the room.

_ Hi _ , the boy mouthed at him. 

Andrew looked away.

_ Strike number one. _

“Come on, Andrew. There’s someone I want you to meet.”

Andrew wasn’t listening. He was too busy listening to the voices in his head. He looked back where he last had seen sunshine boy and his stomach dropped. He was gone. 

_ Pipe dream.  _

_ Strike number two. _

He followed Kevin around, sad that he had let sunshine boy out of his sight. He knows it’s his own fault and that he shouldn’t have looked away. Kevin is introducing him to various people Kevin might think Andrew’s interested in getting to know when picture perfect sunshine boy walks up to them, all smiles and sunshines. Andrew wonders if his cheeks hurt from smiling so much. 

Andrew stared, and it was his third mistake that night.

_ Strike number three.  _

_ You’re out.  _

“Andrew, this is Jeremy Knox. He’s...” the rest of Kevin’s sentence was lost in translation because Andrew was busy staring at Jeremy.

_ ‘Jeremy’ _ stuck his hand out for Andrew and he stared. He stared at the personification of the sun. He reached out and took ‘ _ Jeremy’s’ _ hand into his hand and shook it. He didn’t let go, and neither did ‘ _ Jeremy’. _

“Hi. I’m Jeremy Knox.”

_ Soulmate. _

_ Personification of the sun.  _

“Andrew Minyard.” Jeremy’s smile widened and Andrew wondered how he could be so close to the sun without getting burned. Jeremy shook his hand and didn’t let go, and when he took a step closer, Andrew thought he would die. He wasn’t used to letting people close besides Kevin, Neil and Aaron. 

“Do you dance, Andrew?” Jeremy asked and looked at Andrew. Jeremy was as tall as Nicky, which was a little strange, but Andrew didn’t mind getting a kink in his neck from looking up at him. 

“No,” Andrew said, and Jeremy laughed. He laughed, and it was the most beautiful sound Andrew had ever heard. He let himself be pulled along onto the dance floor. He let Jeremy guide his hands onto his waist and Jeremy’s own found a safe harbour on Andrew’s shoulders. 

“Let me teach you,” he said and smiled and danced.

Jeremy didn’t have to teach him, because somehow Andrew knew how to dance.

_ Soulmate. _

They moved in perfect tandems as they danced. Not a foot was out of place or out of step with the music. Even Jeremy was surprised that Andrew  _ could _ dance. He stared at Andrew and just now seemed to realise what Andrew had known the entire evening.

“Soulmates,” he whispered.

_ Soul-fucking-mates. _

They fit together like day and night. Jeremy, the personification of the sun and Andrew, the personification of the moon. 

_ Helios and Selene. _

_ Apollo and Artemis.  _

_ Two halves of a whole _ , Andrew thought and pulled Jeremy closer by his hips. Jeremy wrapped his arms around Andrew’s shoulders, and Andrew’s hands found themselves on Jeremy’s lower back. 

This felt like coming home. 

And Andrew never wanted to let it go. He couldn’t. He pulled Jeremy off the dance floor towards the doors to the plexiglass cage they were trapped in. He held Jeremy by the hand as he went to the parking lot, walking between busses and cars until he deemed it safe enough. He pressed Jeremy against the side of the bus, watching his reaction as he crowded him against the side of the bus. Jeremy didn’t look fazed or scared by being pushed up against the side of the bus. He was taller than Andrew, around Nicky’s height, and he was a year or two older than him. Andrew studied him before he pulled him down for a kiss.

After that, everything was a blur. All he remembered when he woke up was hands touching, bodies moving, and shared kisses. He remembered pushing Jeremy up against a bus and remembered dancing. Panic filled his body as he sat up, almost hauling himself out of the bed. He was still dressed, or as dressed as he could be without being naked. He was still wearing boxers and a t-shirt. 

He looked around the room and for the first time he noticed that this wasn’t a hotel room. This was his bedroom in Columbia. Panic rose in his stomach. Everything looked normal and in their places. Not a thing was out of place. He remembered a picture perfect beach boy in a perfectly tailored suit. He remembered their lips pressing together. He remembered dancing and pushing him up against the wall. He jumped out of bed and got dressed in the skinny jeans that had been thrown haphazardly on the floor before he ran downstairs, naked feet slapping through hardwood flooring. 

He looked around the living room. It was snowing outside. He could hear Nicky in the kitchen, making breakfast. Aaron and Neil were curled up on one couch, Kevin stretched out on the other. He walked over to the couch, standing in front of Kevin.

“Hey--“

“Jeremy.”

Kevin looked confused. He sat up straighter and looked at Andrew. “Who?”

“Jeremy. You know him.”

“I don’t know anyone named Jeremy.”

“You introduced us. At the banquet.” Andrew wanted to bash Kevin’s head in. “You introduced us Kevin. You introduced us and we danced!”

Kevin’s facial expression softened the more Andrew spoke. And the softer Kevin’s expression got, the more Andrew realized it had been a dream. A dream with the person he would spend the rest of his life with. The person he would spend the rest of his life looking for. He took a step back, trying to make the blow hurt less. But it didn’t. 

“Andrew I don’t know anyone named Jeremy. It was a dream. A dream with your soulmate.”

_ K.O _

It was the only explanation, but it was like being sucker punched in the guts. He couldn’t come up with a better explanation, no matter how badly he wanted it to be true. He looked at Kevin, then at Neil and Aaron. He took another step back. 

_ Mission failed _

_ Return to last save? All progress will be lost _

_ Delete save? _

_ Yes/No _

“You’re lying.” His voice was small, and it’s not his own. It sounds foreign and out of place. He’s hyperventilating, and he knows how to tackle this, but he’s frozen. He can’t move, and it’s not until Neil has his hand pressed against the back of Andrew’s neck that he remembers to breathe. 

“Deep breaths Andrew. Deep breaths. We’ll help you find him. He’s out there. Your soulmate is out there somewhere looking for you too,” Neil said. It made sense that his soulmate would look for him too.

“We’ll start by searching Facebook and other social media.” It was Aaron speaking now. 

Aaron and Neil were soulmates. Aaron and Neil had had the whole _ a memory that wasn’t really a memory. A constellation of freckles. A fleeting scent of sea water or hot chocolate.  _ Neil was a cheerleader and as confusing and jarring it had been when Aaron introduced Neil to them. He was angry at Aaron for months until Neil wormed his way into Andrew’s life. He was glad Aaron had Neil, but he needed  _ Jeremy _ . He needed Jeremy. He needed to feel his lips against his. He needed one more dance, one more night.

“We were dancing… we kissed… What if…”

“What if he’s a ghost?” Neil asked and Andrew nodded. “He’s not Drew. He’s not a ghost. I thought Aaron was a ghost. Until I met him I thought he was a ghost. Jeremy is real. I promise you that.”

Andrew nodded. He wanted to believe him, but he had a hard time believing him. For all he knew, Jeremy was a pipe dream. A ghost. Someone haunting him. 

_ A pipe dream _

_ Apollo _

_ Helios _

He had to find him. He had to find Jeremy.

_ My missing piece _


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He was in his own head space when he walked the canned food aisle looking for kidney beans for chili con carne. He reached out for the last can, but his hand didn’t touch metal.
> 
> It touched skin.
> 
> It snapped Andrew out of his head and he looked up at the person the hand belonged to. 
> 
> The stranger was Jeremy. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AND SO THEY MEET
> 
> Unbetaed.  
> English is not my first language.  
> Be kind to yourself and others!
> 
> You can talk to me on [twitter](https://mobile.twitter.com/foxyroxi_writes)!

Flashing lights. 

_Red_

_Yellow_

_Green_

_White_

He’s driving through downtown Denver. Christmas lights are blinking everywhere and it was making Andrew go crazy. It’s lighting up the streets and Bee wouldn’t be proud if he tore it all down in a fit of rage. He had never liked Christmas; it made him think about all the Christmases he missed as a foster child. 

_I want to tear them down_

It was snowing heavily, and all Andrew wanted to go home to the cats. He was late and King and Sir were likely busy shredding his mail because he was stuck in traffic. Not that it was his fault, because it wasn’t. People were busy and rushing to get home before the snow got too bad, but it only led to people crashing their cars amidst Christmas shopping on the busiest street in Denver. 

He stopped for a red-light and counted the blinks as he finished his cup of hot chocolate with whipped cream and marshmallows he had gotten from Starbucks, when a blonde-haired man walked across the pedestrian crossing in front of him. Andrew almost dropped his cup out of sheer surprise. 

_That’s him?_

He followed the man with his eyes and concluded that the man wasn’t Jeremy. He was too old. Too pale. He sighed and returned his gaze to the traffic light.

_Red_

_Yellow_

_Green_

It had been three years since he had had that dream about him. 

About Jeremy.

Some days it felt like Jeremy was just a ghost. An imagination. A hallucination. 

_Pipe dream_

_Stop it. Stop thinking_

_I wish I could_

Sometimes Andrew’s mind was unhelpful. He supposed being stuck in his car in evening traffic didn’t help with overthinking things. The dream would sometimes sneak back. He would retrace every step of the dream. The first time he saw him, the first time their eyes met. The first time their hands touched and the first time they kissed against the bus.

Sometimes he would sit in his car, cats in a tow and wonder what it would be like to have Jeremy sit besides him in the car, talking about anything and nothing. He wondered if the cats would like him too. He wondered what kind of job Jeremy would have. Where he was living.

He parked in front of his apartment complex and got out of his car. The snow had gotten worse on his way home, and there already was snow piling up on the streets. He parked the car and grabbed the bag of groceries from the backseat and ventured up to the apartment with wet feet because Andrew refused to buy winter shoes. He toed off his shoes outside the apartment before he unlocked the door. Sir and King greeted him by the door, already meowing like they hadn’t been fed for _weeks._

“Stop it. I fed you this morning,” he sighed and bent down to pick up his mail and to pet the cats. They both crawled onto his shoulders and sat like gargoyles on his shoulders as he stood back up and went to the kitchen to unpack his groceries and to feed the cats. They meowed greedily before they dived into their food bowls. He grabs the Ben and Jerry’s cookie dough ice cream and flops down on the couch and turns on the tv. He allowed himself to wallow in self pity for a while.

The snow didn’t let up. In fact, it got worse. It got so bad Andrew had to seek refuge in a Walmart store on his way from work. Snow was everywhere and he couldn’t get anywhere, which was good because he really didn’t want to go to work today. He should just have called in sick this morning instead of venturing outside his warm cocoon of blankets and cats. 

While it stranded him in Walmart, he figured he could at least do some shopping. He grabbed a cart and wandered the aisles aimlessly. He didn’t really need anything, but he figured he might as well stuck up on a few things. He grabbed bread, rice, couscous because Kevin was a pain in the ass and honestly? 

Couscous was a lot better than bulgur. 

He grabbed pasta. Cat food and treats. He bought toys and a new bed for Sir and King as a peace offering because there was no way he was making it home in time for dinner. He grabbed a few frozen items when he noticed a blonde guy taking the last pint of Neapolitan ice cream and then the last of Ben and Jerry’s cookie dough ice cream. A deep frown appeared on Andrew’s face, but there was nothing he could do about it. He noticed the freckles on the blonde’s neck that spread like a constellation that disappeared down his neck. 

He shrugged it off and grabbed a pint of nougat ice cream and brownie ice cream from Ben and Jerry’s. He went back and grabbed two spoons and a cooler to keep his ice cream from melting. He grabbed a few new fuzzy blankets from the home decor aisle before he cruised through the book section. 

The blonde guy was back. He was looking at a few newly released books, his back the only thing Andrew had seen so far. He noticed the guy was wearing a ‘ _Denver Hurricanes, Minyard #7’_. He snorted and shook his head slightly. He grabbed one book without looking and went on another tour around the store for anything he might have missed. 

He was in his own head space when he walked the canned food aisle looking for kidney beans for chili con carne. He reached out for the last can, but his hand didn’t touch metal.

It touched skin.

It snapped Andrew out of his head and he looked up at the person the hand belonged to. 

The stranger was Jeremy. 

_Tan skin, blonde hair and impossibly blue eyes_

_Beautiful_

_Soulmate_

_Strike one_

Jeremy looked just as surprised as Andrew did. None of them had imagined running into the other in a grocery store. That wasn’t the dream. The dream was them meeting for the first time at a banquet. It was supposed to be dreamlike and earth shattering. It wasn’t supposed to be like this - meeting between kidney beans and black beans. Their first meeting wasn’t supposed to be like this. But Andrew was glad it came to be like this. 

_Our first meeting_

_I finally found you_

_My missing piece_

_Strike two_

Seeing Jermey for the first time was even better than meeting him in the dream. It was like being sucker punched, just ten times worse.

It was like being shot into outer space. 

“You…” Andrew said, his voice small and not at all his own. 

“Hi.” Jeremy smiled that bright smile that made Andrew’s heart skip a beat, made his stomach burst because of the butterflies.

“Hi,” he whispered. “I finally found you.”

“Yeah… I didn’t think it would be like this,” Jeremy said and held his hand out for Andrew. “Jeremy Knox.” Andrew took his hand and electricity shot up his arm. 

_Sparks_

“Andrew Minyard.” Jeremy laughed, and he wanted to store the sound deep in his heart. That’s when he noticed that Jeremy was wearing the ‘ _Denver Hurricanes, Minyard #7’._ “You took the last Neapolitan ice cream. And the last Cookie dough.”

“Yeah. Those are my favourite.”

_Soulmate_

“And the kidney beans?”

“Chili con carne.”

_Soul-fucking-mate_

_Strike three, you’re out_

They went back to Jeremy’s apartment. It was just across the street and as Jeremy put it, _‘It’s much better than freezing to death in your very expensive car.’_ Jeremy was right. It was much better than to freeze to death in his car. He called his neighbour, making them feed his cats until he could come home. He stored his ice cream in Jeremy’s freezer and watched him make chili con carne. 

They talked while Jeremy cooked. Andrew had a beer, and he told Jeremy about the cats and their silly names. He talked about his work, about Kevin and what were the odds that Jeremy knew Kevin, and about the dream he had had three years ago. The dream they had shared. Talking to Jeremy was easy, and it made him feel like he had known Jeremy his entire life. 

_My Helios_

_My Apollo_

_My soulmate_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> You can talk to me on [twitter](https://mobile.twitter.com/foxyroxi_writes)!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> You can talk to me on [twitter](https://mobile.twitter.com/foxyroxi_writes)!


End file.
